Event Description

Warm-Up for TOMORROW: Program Recommendation + Screening of “Congotronics 2: Buzz'n'Rumble From the Urb'n'Jungle

Time2018.5.13 20:00 - 21:00VenueOld Heaven Books, North District of OCT-LOFT

On the last Sunday before the 5th Tomorrow Festival, we will be waiting for you at the Old Heaven Books. In this warm-up event, we will give a brief introduction about the features and highlights of this year’s programs, followed by the screening of “Congotronics 2: Buzz'n'Rumble From the Urb'n'Jungle”. Festival tickets and merchandise will be available at door. See you “Tomorrow”!

The Konono N°1 album “Congotronics” started giving worldwide exposure to the strange and spectacular electro-traditional mixtures which are being concocted in the suburbs of Kinshasa, Congo. World music, electronica and avant-rock aficionados were equally amazed by this otherworldly music, which drove the international press to come up with extremely surprising comparisons from Jimi Hendrix to Lee Perry and Krautrock, etc. Hot on the footsteps of “Congotronics” came the second volume, “Congotronics 2: Buzz'n'Rumble From the Urb'n'Jungle”, a fresh selection of even more amazing sounds, courtesy of no less than 6 electro-traditional bands from Kinshasa, which have all been especially recorded and produced by Crammed’s Vincent Kenis. These bands all draw on traditional music, to which they’ve incorporated heavily-distorted sounds generated by DIY amplification of their instruments... just like Konono N°1, except that the instrumentation, timbres and rhythms used by these bands are relatively diverse: the trademark electrified thumb pianos and megaphones are joined by an array of distorted drums, swirling guitars and hypnotic balafons. The “Congotronics 2” album includes a 41-minute DVD based on material filmed by Vincent Kenis while he recorded these bands in Kinshasa, and edited by Elsa Dahmani. The subtitle of this album hints to the legendary Ali-Foreman boxing fight which took place in Kinshasa in 1974, and was nicknamed “Rumble In The Jungle”. James Brown, BB King, Fania All Stars and Myriam Makeba performed there around that event, which had a deep impact on a whole generation of young Congolese musicians and fans.